


With a kiss

by killerweasel



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-02
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 22:16:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/667081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerweasel/pseuds/killerweasel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts with a kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With a kiss

Title: With a kiss  
Fandom: Angel  
Characters: Lindsey McDonald, Marcus Hamilton  
Prompt: 21. Kiss  
Word Count: 1,549  
Rating: R

AU after _You're Welcome_

**With a kiss**

We should have been enemies. He worked for and belonged to creatures that wanted me dead. No, that wasn’t true. If the Senior Partners wanted me dead, I would have taken my last breath a while ago. The death I went through every day in the holding dimension was as close to the real thing as I was going to get. It always ended the same, with me screaming while the Wrath’s fingers closed around my heart and tore it out of my chest. He even let me watch it beat a couple of times before adding it to the pile on the floor.

While I was in the house, I didn’t remember anything that happened. My memories came crashing back the moment I got onto the table though. I remembered everything that had taken place before coming here and what I’d been going through. Begging wouldn’t do a damn thing, so I kept my comments to an astonishing amount of swearing followed by screams of pain. Some people got up, had a cup of coffee and read the paper. I got tortured. Personally, I would have preferred the coffee and I hated that shit.

Marcus didn’t show up until the fourth of fifth time I’d gone through the process. I knew what he was from the moment I saw him. When you’d worked for the firm as long as I had, you could recognize the people who were created by the Partners themselves. It was the way they held themselves, the way they moved. As far as I knew, they were never children. Eve told me once that her first memory was waking up in an empty room. She’d looked just like she did now and every memory in her head had been placed there by the Partners.

Humans intrigued liaisons. They didn’t understand why we did the things we did or even dared to go up against beings as powerful as the ones who had brought them into this world. She’d found me by accident in a tiny little town outside of Nepal and I turned out to be the best and worst thing in her life. When she got a taste of what humanity offered, she wanted more. They rarely got to express their emotions or enjoy themselves, so being with someone like me was like entering a whole new world.

By the time I’d been pulled into the holding dimension, I knew Eve was royally screwed. The Partners wouldn’t want her; she was tainted with the stench and touch of humanity. Angel’s people hated her for what she was and I... I’d promised to take care of her. I was doing a bang-up job of that right now. She was on her own, alone in a world she didn’t understand and it was all going to come crashing down on her head soon.

I woke up clutching my chest and gasping. It was the same reaction every time. If I closed my eyes, I could still see the rusty knife slowly coming toward my skin. Shuddering, I looked around and that’s when I saw him. If vampires are predators, liaisons make them look like prey. Their strength came directly from the Partners and they would have no problem snapping a man’s spine in half. Eve was stronger than she looked; I’d seen her tear the throat out of a Nedrag demon once. This guy though... I wouldn’t want to piss him off.

“My name is Marcus Hamilton. We need to talk, Mr. McDonald.” He came over and pulled up a chair that shouldn’t have been able to support a man of his size. I heard the wood creak, but it didn’t shatter.

The smile on his face sent a shiver down my spine. “I’m not interested in talking.”

He undid the straps holding my wrists and ankles to the table. “It concerns Eve.”

Sitting up, I eyed him warily. “They’re going to kill her, aren’t they?” If they did, that was my fault.

“They’ve been thinking about it. You’ve turned her into something they don’t like.” Marcus’ fingers brushed lightly over the place where a scar should have been on my chest. “I’m here to make a deal.”

I reached out and curled my hand around his wrist. His eyes widened as I pulled him closer. When his face was in front of mine, I smiled. “Are you sure you’re in the position to make any deals?” Then I leaned in and pressed my lips to his.

The reaction was just what I’d expected. He tried to pull away from me, but I brought my other hand to the back of his neck and held him there until air became a serious factor. When I let go, he staggered backwards with what could almost be described as horror on his face. “What did... you aren’t supposed to do that!”

Chuckling softly, I licked my lips. “You’ve never done that before, have you Marcus? It’s against the rules.” I knew all about the rules. Not only did I have more information in my head about the Partners than any other human in this part of the world, but I’d made damn sure to research their ‘children’ too. “You’d better be careful, they’ll know about it when you leave this building.”

The color drained from his face as he stalked back over towards me. “You did that on purpose.”

“Damn right I did.” My body tensed up as his fists clenched. “Where’s the paper on Eve? I want to read it over before I sign anything.”

For a second I thought he was going to take my head off. Then he pulled a paper from his pocket and shoved it in my direction. I read it over and snickered. “Sorry, I won’t agree to this. You want her job; you change the wording so she gets to live. It’s not her fault.”

“They aren’t going to like that.” He scribbled something onto the paper and I watched the words change. “What you did... can we do that again? I...”

The smile on my face made me feel incredibly evil. It wasn’t just a kiss. There were also emotions and reactions involved that weren’t normally there for someone like him. “Sure, we can do it again. Come here.”

I was gentle this time. Barely brushing my lips over his before letting it deepen. He groaned against my mouth and I felt his fingers tangle in my hair. Instead of pulling away, Marcus rested his forehead against my own. “Was it like this for her?”

“It’s different for everyone.” I thought about the things Eve and I had done and every single one of them had been a whole new experience for her. “We can do it again; I’m stuck here for a while, Marcus. But you need to get back before they send someone to look for you.”

He looked nervous as he took a step back. “They’ll know about this, they know about everything.”

I quickly scrawled my name on the paper he’d left on the table. From what I saw of the fine print, it just listed daily interrogation sessions with Marcus in exchange for Eve’s life. That was fine by me. Anything he did down here would heal. And now I had the feeling that we’d be doing a lot less talking. “You need to build walls in your head. That’s what she did. She was with me for months before they ever found out. Think about other things and whatever happens down here stays between us.”

He’d come back every day since I’d signed that paper. I went slow and easy with Marcus because what we did scared the shit out of him. It wasn't the act that worried him though; it was how the Partners would react. The more we got together, the more I noticed how he was starting to change. He was picking up human qualities.

After Angel freed me, I’d ended up in a cell. The only visitor I ever had was Marcus. At the moment, he was curled around my body, clutching me like he didn’t want to let go. “Do you think we can run?”

A month ago, I never would have thought those words would have fallen from his lips. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do? Once we go, we can’t look back, Marcus. We’ll have to stay two steps ahead of anyone they send after us.”

He sighed against my neck. “If I stay here, they’re going to kill me. They might have let Eve get away with becoming like you, but it wouldn’t happen twice. I’d be the example for the others.”

“Then we’ll run.” I wondered how far we’d get. An idea popped into my head and I started to whisper a plan to him.

“That might work, Lindsey.” He gave me a nervous smile. “Be ready tomorrow.”

\---

Two months and three run-ins with the firm’s goons later, we were sprawled on the white sand of a Hawaiian beach. Both of us had scars that weren’t there before, but we’d managed to survive so far. Even though I had no idea what the future held for us, I was hoping it might end happy. That wasn’t too much to ask.


End file.
